PUBLICATION
Optimizing assays of zebrafish larvae swimming performance for drug discovery
- Authors
- Widrick, J.J., Lambert, M.R., Kunkel, L.M., Beggs, A.H.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-230515-42
- Date
- 2023
- Source
- Expert opinion on drug discovery 18(6): 629-641 (Review)
- Registered Authors
- Beggs, Alan H., Kunkel, Louis M., Widrick, Jeffrey
- Keywords
- Danio rerio, Zebrafish, biomechanics, drug development, locomotion, swimming
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Drug Discovery
- Larva/physiology
- Swimming*/physiology
- Zebrafish*/physiology
- PubMed
- 37183669 Full text @ Expert Opin. Drug Discov.
Citation
Widrick, J.J., Lambert, M.R., Kunkel, L.M., Beggs, A.H. (2023) Optimizing assays of zebrafish larvae swimming performance for drug discovery. Expert opinion on drug discovery. 18(6):629-641.
Abstract
Introduction Zebrafish larvae are one of the few vertebrates amenable to large-scale drug discovery screens. Larval swimming behavior is often used as an outcome variable and many fields of study have developed assays for evaluating swimming performance. An unintended consequence of this wide interest is that details related to assay methodology and interpretation become scattered across the literature. The aim of this review is to consolidate this information, particularly as it relates to high-throughput approaches.
Areas covered The authors describe larval swimming behaviors as this forms the basis for understanding their experimentally evoked swimming or spontaneous activity. Next, they detail how swimming activity can serve as an outcome variable, particularly in the multi-well formats used in large-scale screening studies. They also highlight biological and technical factors that can impact the sensitivity and variability of these measurements.
Expert opinion Careful attention to animal husbandry, experimental design, data acquisition, and interpretation of results can improve screen outcomes by maximizing swimming activity while minimizing intra- and inter-larval variability. The development of more sensitive, quantitative methods of assessing swimming performance that can be incorporated into high-throughput workflows will be important in order to take full advantage of the zebrafish model.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping